Tage Erlander

Tage Fritiof Erlander (13 June 1901-21 June 1985) was Prime Minister of Sweden from 11 October 1946 to 14 October 1969, succeeding Per Albin Hansson and preceding Olof Palme. Erlander was a member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party.

Biography
Tage Fritiof Erlander was born in Ransater, Varmland, Sweden in 1901, and he graduated from Lund University in 1928. He worked as the editor of an encyclopedia, but he was elected to the Riksdag in 1933 as a member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. He was an Under-Secretary in the Social Department from 1938 to 1944, then Minister without Portfolio, and Minister of Education in 1945. He was the party's surprise choice to succeed Per Albin Hansson as party leader and Prime Minister in 1946, and he continued his predecessor's development of Sweden's model welfare state. He introduced an extremely high rate of very progressive taxation in 1947 which was designed to reduce income inequalities and put large funds for redistribution into the hands of the state. In response, pensions were increased, and a child allowance scheme introduced, while other measures such as statutory holidays were in place by 1955. Despite initial economic difficulties, when he profited from edisunity among the opposition parties, he was able to sustain his model of a socialism that he took to be the middle way between communism and capitalism, owing to his political craftsmanship, his pragmatism and common sense, and the blossoming of the economy. After leaving office, in which he was succeeded by Olof Palme, he wrote his memoirs in six volumes from 1972 to 1982.